American Girl Discounts: 5 Ways to find Discounts on Clothing and Accessories

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American Girl discounts are always very popular as so many little girls are wanting these beautiful dolls and the whole experience that goes with it, but parents are looking at ways they can decrease their spending as the dolls are so expensive (they are all $105+ for the 18″ dolls).  Thankfully we saw an awesome American Girl Doll deal available for a short time last week, with 2 dolls priced 61% off – just $50/doll – it was only available for a few short hours, but hopefully many of you were able to take advantage of that sale.

My 6 year old daughter has been really wanting an American Girl doll  – we somehow ended up with a catalog at our house (knew I should have hidden it & recycled it before she saw it! :) ) so she’s been eying them for months. My husband and I just didn’t feel it was in our budget or something that we wanted to spend that much money on. But when the deal came out last week, we went ahead & bought a doll for my daughter since it was 61% off! I knew that deal would never come around again & I feel much better about paying that price. However, she is really wanting McKenna (the 2012 doll of the year) as she is a gymnast & my daughter is taking gymnastics for the first time this fall (she loved watching it in the Olympics). So, I’ve been on the hunt to find some gymnastics outfits or accessories so she can still dress her doll similar to the McKenna doll.

I’ve been finding that the deals on the American Girl site are not only priced high for the dolls, but the accessories, clothing & furniture items are all very high priced. So, I’ve been determined to find some other options as I know that there are many families who are searching for the most affordable options for American Girl items for their little girls. This is a list of the 5 best ways I found to save on American Girl clothes, furniture and accessories, but I’m sure there are more great ideas out there – we’d love to hear your tips!

Plus, check out our post here on how to make an American Girl Doll Clothes Closet from dollar store items, so you have some place to store all this stuff!

And we have these tips on how to make American Girl Doll Sandals or Duct Tape shoes for just a couple of dollars!

5 Ways to Save on American Girl Clothing and Accessories:

1) Sign up for American Girl emails and follow their Social Media sites 

If you really prefer to buy the items only from the American Girl store, it is rare to find discounts but every now & then we will see some discounts. The best way to stay connected is to sign up for their email newsletter (found at the bottom left of their home page) as they will notify you when they have discount offer available such as free shipping, special sales, etc. During November, they were offering free shipping, so that was one way to save. Hopefully they will bring that discount back for FREE shipping day on December 17th. They did offer a special Cyber Monday sale, too, which had discounts up to 50% off on clothes & accessories & they may offer a similar sale a few times a year.

I’d also recommend following the American Girl Facebook page . Our sweet reader Sarah who shared the deal with us in the Thrifty NW Mom Christmas Deal Group found out about the awesome sale last week by following the American Girl Facebook page as they announced that they’d have a special sale the next day on the Today show. So, it definitely pays to follow your favorite companies on Facebook. You’ll be the first to hear about special savings opportunities and sometimes they may have special discount codes for their fans or email subscribers.

2) Search Amazon for American Girl Sized Clothes 

American Girl clothes for a great price + for an outfit on the American Girl site, but you can find significant discounts on clothes by buying outfits that are American Girl Sized (clothes for an 18″ doll), but not made by the brand.  You’ll find 18″ doll clothes at a number of different sites, but one of the sites that has the most variety & options for pricing is at Amazon. You can either search by “American Girl Clothing” or “18 inch doll clothes” . I found over 1000 searches on Amazon using either of those phrases.

Here are a few of the options I found:

Hot Pink Satin Pajamas with white slippers 

Red Winter Coat Outfit  (coat & matching purse) for 18 inch dolls 

 3) Look online and in stores for “Dollie & Me” Clothes for matching girl and doll clothes

Dollie & Me Nightgown set for girl & doll 

Little girls sure love dressing like their dolls and American Girl does offer some cute matching clothes & PJ sets. However, the sets start at $50 & up! A more budget friendly option are the Dollie & Me clothes. Dollie & Me is a brand of clothes that offers matching girl and doll clothing and is very similar to American Girl clothes.  You can find Dollie & Me clothes at retailers such as Kohl’s, Macy’s, JCPenney’s (online & in-stores), as well as on online shopping sites such as Totsy and Zulily.  We mentioned a sale on Zulily yesterday where they have matching pajamas, outfits and dresses on sale for up to 65% off, with prices starting at $15.99.

My girls with their matching dresses & matching doll dresses at the Evergreen City Ballet Nutcracker performance this weekend!

The dresses my girls are wearing in the picture above are Dollie & Me dresses (these dresses are actually available still with the Zulily Dollie & Me sale going on right now) and they are very nice & high quality dresses. I actually bought these from Kohl’s during their Black Friday sale & with coupon codes & their sale, I got these for $19.20 shipped. Plus I ordered a few extra Christmas gifts to bring my total up over $50 & then I got $15 in Kohl’s cash. So, that’s another way to get more discounts on Dollie & Me clothes – combine store sales with coupon codes and FREE shipping when you can & any other special promotions like Kohl’s cash to lower your total out of pocket further.

4) Search for 18 inch doll clothing and accessories at Target and Walmart

Our Generation 18″ Doll Outfit Set – Collection #2 – $39.99 for 4 sets of outfits

Both Target and Walmart offer 18 inch doll clothes and accessories. At Target, check out the Our Generation dolls as well as all of their clothes, accessories, furniture & toys. We have bought these items before for other similar sized dolls & found that they work well and are typically half the price of American Girl doll items. Many of the clothing items are only found in stores, but they do have a good selection of furniture, toys, accessories & more found online as well. {Take advantage of the current coupon for when you spend $50, get a $10 Target gift card to discount your out of pocket price even more.}

I didn’t realize that Walmart also sells 18 inch doll furniture & accessories at significant discounts, called Badger Basket (which fits dolls up to 20″).  I’m not sure if they sell these in the stores, but I did find a fair Badger Basket furniture items & accessories online. The canopy bed shown above is just $24.88 as compared to paying $124 for a canopy bed on the American Girl site. This item got 4 1/2 stars & great reviews from people whose children have American Girl dolls. I didn’t see any clothing online, but you will definitely find fantastic prices on beds & other doll furniture items.

5) Search thrift stores and garage sales for discounted American Girl dolls & accessories & clothing 

As girls outgrow their dolls, they may end up selling some of the clothing & accessories (& maybe even dolls) at garage sales or on Craigslist (although I’d watch the Craigslist prices as I saw a number of higher prices for older clothing items when I was looking today). I’ve had several friends even find American Girl dolls at Goodwill or Value Village for just a couple dollars – those are rare finds, but you just never know what you will find, so always be on the lookout.  Ebay is another place to look for discounted American Girl items – either the actual items or knock-off items – just search 18 inch doll clothes.

These are just a few different ways you can save money on buying clothing & accessories for your child’s American Girl doll.  I’d love to know if you have more tips on ways you have found to save on American Girl dolls & their clothing, furniture & accessory items!

Please leave a comment if you have any additional ideas to add to this list!